Tuesday, October 30, 2012

A reminder of how amazing this step is for domestic workers in Egypt. And in hopes that domestic workers in Lebanon are able to unionize with time, and perhaps have their own syndicate to organize on their own rather than have others act and speak on their behalf.

Monday, October 22, 2012

Recent months saw a wave of anti-Syrian sentiment in Beirut’s Ashrafieh. The violence has been fuelled by stories about sexual harassment of women in the neighborhood by the recent arrivals from next door. (Indeed, intolerance of the Syrians who are flooding into Lebanon from their war-torn home country is widespread, as six Syrian men were attacked by armed assailants in West Beirut on Wednesday night, leaving several in the hospital).

But all the rumors of widespread harassment of Lebanese women by the Syrians do not withstand scrutiny.

“There is no increase in crimes or sexual harassment by Syrian migrants in Beirut,” says Noha Roukoss from the Caritas Lebanon Migrant Center (CLMC), which coordinates with the judiciary when migrants get arrested or charged with crimes.

While in general sexual harassment of women by both Lebanese and foreign men is rampant, a police official who asked to remain anonymous as he is not allowed to speak to the press backed Roukoss’ assertion. “There are problems in the area with theft and harassment, but these problems aren’t specifically connected to Syrians,” the officer said.

The Lebanese army recently raided several houses in Ashrafieh’s Jeitawi quarter, beating at least 72 migrant workers. In a statement, the army claimed it was reacting to “complaints in Jeitawi because of the acts of foreign laborers of different nationalities, [such as] acts of theft and acts against public morals.”

After the operation, the mukhtars, or local officials, of Ashrafieh also issued a statement, asking the LAF to put an “end to the acts of harassment, rape, murder and theft endured by the residents and which are being committed by the thousands of foreign workers.”

Ashrafieh, and especially Jeitawi, are predominantly Christian neighborhoods with close-knit families who have been living there for generations. But recently demographics started to change. Since close-by Jemmayze became a popular spot for internationals, more and more people moved to Jeitawi, as rents are cheaper and the streets are less noisy. Growing economic opportunities also drew a lot of Syrians who had fled their home country and settled in Jeitawi to work in local businesses.

According to Roukoss, there is a sort of panic in Ashrafieh about the influx of Syrians, which has picked up since fighting in their country has spread in the past year. “Lebanese have suffered a long time from the Syrian occupation. The people don’t know the background of the newcomers and so they’re afraid.”

Pressed about their statement, two Ashrafieh mukhtars, Reine Abdel Nour and Elie Sabbagha, could not cite any concrete examples of harassment by Syrians. Abdel Nour told NOW she hadn’t received any official complaints, though Sabbagha claimed that “there are many complaints. They annoy everybody, especially girls and women. They act as if the country is theirs.” However, around a week after the raid, when NOW told him that nobody interviewed in the neighborhood admitted to having been harassed, he retracted his statement.

“It is a blatant case of racism,” says Farah Salka from the Anti-Racism Movement, a Lebanese civil society organization. “Someone from the neighborhood knew someone who knew someone. So the army came to show the Syrians their position in Lebanon. They wanted to tell them ‘Don’t feel too comfortable here. Know your place.’” Salka has been doing social and community work in the area for years. “I’m getting harassed by men almost every day, but I can’t remember that any of them was a migrant.”

The police official interviewed by NOW backs these claims. “The statements of the army and the mukhtars have no fact-based background,” he said after double-checking with officers working in the area.

Here’s another date to look forward to in November besides the US presidential elections on the 6th: On November 12 is the verdict in the trial of a monstrous Emirati woman who is appealing a 13-year sentence for sexually assaulting and then beating to death her Indonesian maid.

The woman first claimed innocence in the killing, but then when it became abundantly clear that she murdered her maid with her own hands, she claimed insanity. After having been proved sane, she’s now appealing the verdict, claiming it was the police who killed the lady.

As sad as it sounds, I’m pleasantly surprised that there was a trial at all. Here in Lebanon, according to a Human Rights Watch report, a “lack of accessible complaint mechanisms, lengthy judicial procedures, and restrictive visa policies dissuade many workers from filing or pursuing complaints against their employers. Even when workers file complaints, the police and judicial authorities regularly fail to treat certain abuses against domestic workers as crimes.”

There are even examples of maids complaining about their employers and then ending up in jail themselves.

As much as it hurts to say, putting abusive employers on trial is one of the ways in which Lebanon could gain from emulating the Emirates.

BEIRUT: Six Lebanese and a Palestinian suspect were arrested early Thursday after allegedly beating and stabbing Syrian workers at a Beirut construction site.

Security sources told The Daily Star that the group of young men, who used three motorcycles and a four-wheel drive vehicle to storm the construction site in Wata Mossaitbeh, Beirut, shortly after midnight, beat and stabbed six Syrian workers.

The injured, some in serious condition, were taken to Rafik Hariri state hospital for treatment, said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

They said seven suspects – six Lebanese and a Palestinian – were arrested during a police manhunt in the nearby area of Ras al-Nabeh shortly after the attack.

Daggers, butcher knives and sharp tools were found on the suspects who were taken to Ramlet al-Baida police station for interrogation, the sources added.

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

After the MEA incident and the different reactions it solicited from people, we put up this post in reply to MEA and appealing to them to take more action, the right kind of action, to turn the page properly on what happened.

In response to our call for testimonies, we received the below. We paste with a few edits and without posting the name of the sender, of course. S/he works at the airport. The below testimonials are not reflecting MEA flight stories and might no be related to MEA at all. They are just a small reflection of practices, very normalized practices, at Beirut airport, regardless of which airlines.

We would appreciate and be grateful if others follow through and send their testimonies too. We can only counter this together.

***

...

1
On the flight that goes to Ethiopia, if an African person is too slow carrying their luggage to the scale, they're threatened that they will not be allowed to travel.

2
They are also only allowed to be seated in the back of the plane.

3

Their hand luggage is taken from them and put in cargo, and if they refuse, and say they want to keep their hand bags, they're again told they will not be permitted to travel.

4
Also, an officer in the customs once approached an Ethiopian girl, telling her that if she paid him a bit, he wouldn't let the airline charge her for excess weight. She gave him either a 20$ or 50$. Then he abandoned her. The airline charged her of course.

5
Lebanese people treat the Ethiopian airlines cabin crew like maids, they yell at them, insult them, and speak to them like they would speak to slaves.
...

Monday, October 15, 2012

On the evening of 7 October 2012, the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) raided three houses in the Beirut neighborhood of Jeitawi in Achrafieh where up to 72 migrant workers reside and rounded them up and subjected them to beatings. Media reports said that 11 migrants were arrested.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) called for an investigation and the punishment for the army attacks on migrants. HRW said that the workers “were not aware of anyone being arrested.”

Either foreigners are the only persons in Lebanon harassing and aggressing Lebanese, or that harassment and aggression by Lebanese – as opposed to non-Lebanese – does not constitute a violation of the law and is tolerated.Responding to HRW, an LAF communiqué (as well as a communiqué by an Achrafieh citizen group) affirmed the role of the military “in responding to abuses and harassment.” These responses were explained as an implementation of the rule of law.

In recent years, training and capacity building have been pursued by Lebanon’s various security forces, under the guise of the “rule of law,” mostly supported by foreigner donors and embassies. One such example is the European Union project to support the Lebanese police.

Rule of law implies that everyone – from the individual right up to the state itself – is accountable to laws that are publicly promulgated, equally enforced and independently adjudicated. Yet, migrant workers in Lebanon seem to “fall outside” the rule of law. Over the past four years, numerous human rights campaigns have failed to impact a sustainable change in the situation of migrant domestic workers, and in replacing the sponsorship (Kafala) system with another system respective of human dignity.

On October 11, the LAF’s second communiqué in relation to the October 7 incident called on citizens to report harassment and aggression by foreigners to security forces, in order for the latter to respond to them.

The rationale of this communiqué is that either foreigners are the only persons in Lebanon harassing and aggressing Lebanese, or that harassment and aggression by Lebanese – as opposed to non-Lebanese – does not constitute a violation of the law and is tolerated.

Also, the communiqué’s proposal that the security forces “respond” to violations suggests that the judiciary is sidelined – certainly not in compliance with the rule of law.

The Lebanese public, particularly within the Christian community, has not forgotten the rape and murder of Myriam al-Ashkar in November 2011 by a Syrian janitor working at a monastery in the Keserwan region of Sahel Alma, where Ashkar had been praying.

On Facebook, the Achrafieh page discussions in relation to the incident were enflamed with statements such as “I would like to see your reaction when one of those pigs molests your sister or mother again and again or robs u [sic] with zero remorse.” Telecoms minister Nicolas Sehnaoui issued a statement decrying the campaign against the LAF following the latter’s crackdown on workers of various nationalities who had committed crimes.

In contrast with these discourses, the principle of individual criminal responsibility, including the prohibition of collective punishment, is a fundamental guarantee of international human rights law. The European Court of Human Rights stated that “it is a fundamental rule … that criminal liability does not survive the person who has committed the criminal act” (AP, MP and TP v Switzerland, Case No 71/1996/690/882).

The political elite and the media are failing to make a clear distinction between suspected criminals (migrants or citizens) and the community of male migrant workers. And they have deliberately ignored the fact that some of the migrants who were beaten on October 7 have been living in Lebanon since the ‘90s, are well integrated in the local community and known to their Lebanese neighbors.

The political elite and the media are failing to make a clear distinction between suspected criminals (migrants or citizens) and the community of male migrant workers.Since 2009, I have documented on my blog, Ethiopian Suicides, this same phenomena in relation to women migrant domestic workers. A given case of theft or abuse by a migrant domestic worker is cited to reject the demands of the human rights community for reform.

Should we assume that a given migrant worker is suspected of criminal behavior, the judiciary has to intervene and investigate, and to establish the facts. This is the cornerstone of the rule of law, and the guarantee for the safety of both the migrant worker community and the Lebanese community hosting the migrants.

Further to this, Article 14 of the Lebanese constitutions states: “Domicile is inviolable. No one can enter it except when provided by the law and according to the procedures the law prescribes.” For the purpose of cracking down on criminality, whether committed by Lebanese or by migrants, the general prosecutor and the investigation judge are entitled to issue search warrants for places of residence. The sanctions for a law enforcement official violating the privacy of homes is detailed in the Lebanese Army’s own publication, Majallet al-Jaysh, in its January 2006 edition.

Codes of conduct are aimed at rendering explicit how law enforcement officials can and should respect human rights, human dignity and freedoms, the most important of which are the right to life, prohibition of torture and cruel treatment, and the right to a fair trial.

In 2011, the Lebanese Internal Security Forces (ISF) adopted a Code of Conduct, with support from the United National Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. The model code of conduct followed by most states is the Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials, adopted by the United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders (Cuba, 1990).

Historically, the LAF have played the role of law enforcement officials, contributing to maintaining Lebanon’s security and stability. In light of this internal role, the LAF should seek to follow the ISF code of conduct, or at a minimum, abide by the UN Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms.

In the foreword to the ISF Code of Conduct, the Minister of Interior and Municipalities Marwan Charbel said that “this (code) is a pioneering accomplishment and a worthy model for Lebanon and the world as the Code of Conduct establishes institutional, ethical and professional ground rules observing national legislation and international conventions and standards...Let us contribute to strengthening the rule of law and state institutions based on the principles of democracy and respect for human rights.”

In contrast with the October 7 incident, the Code of Conduct states that “police members will not practice, incite, or disregard any act of torture or any cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment during investigations and during the execution of their missions…Police members will be ethical and polite; they will also be strict, tactful and well-mannered and show no arrogance when performing their duties.”

With such guidelines in place, and with legislative safeguards for prevention of abuse of security forces, and for a fair trial, the LAF, the ISF and the Lebanese government should invest more effort to ensure compliance with these rules. And they must demonstrate that the principle of the rule of law in Lebanon is inclusive of the migrant worker community – both male and female.

Sunday, October 14, 2012

So a friend in Lebanon told me this today. She works at one of the consulates of a country which many domestic workers here come from. I had to share.

***
She was at Adlieh detention center a few days back. She had a few cases she needed to follow up on and some people to visit and deliver stuff to. While she was busy doing what she was doing, one of the security people comes up to her and tells her, 'Im sorry about the airport incident'. He was referring to the MEA incident of last Sunday. And he looked like he really meant his sorry. Surprised, and barely having time to answer that, a few other police officers start rambling about that story and how bad it was, how they believe MEA should be severely held accountable to what had happened and how it is unacceptable, under any pretext, to treat people like this.
***

We might sound angry and upset most of the time. There is after all, enough content around us to make us negative and pessimistic quite often. But it only take a genuine story like this for us to remember that isn't always as bad as we think it is. Even within the general security people, there are ones who have hearts and guts to apologize on behalf what others have done.

So why don't they fly good ole Dixie in celebration of their racist, in addition to "international," ways?

Thankfully we now have local groups like the Anti Racism Movement (ARM) that are exposing such discriminatory practices through covert recording operations like this one, performed earlier this summer. Every resort phoned by activists openly admitted their race-based entrance policies:

ARM is also doing hidden camera reports that are getting a fair amount of coverage in the Lebanese press.

Some Ghanaians in the past have seen the consulate, Michel S. Haddad, to file complaints to him. However nothing seems to change. I mean how do you expect a Lebanese to go against his own people? Yet, this man has been in charge of the welfare of Ghanaians and solving any issues that our people cannot overcome on their own for several years. Ghanaians complain bitterly about this consulate and are desperately pleading to get a new one, one who is theirs, one who is like them…a Ghanaian, for who is there to project their voices?

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

BEIRUT: Middle East Airlines has fired the female staff member involved in a racist incident over the weekend, according to a company official.

The airline said Tuesday on its Facebook page that “severe disciplinary action” had been taken against the two staff members involved in the incident, but an anonymous MEA official told the Associated Press that the female employee had been dismissed.

The punishment followed an online petition demanding an apology from MEA after a flier, Abed Shaheen, witnessed an MEA employee singling out Filipino and Nepalese customers over the loudspeaker Saturday evening at the Beirut airport, instructing them to be quiet and laughing at them in a mocking way. Her male colleague was encouraging her, Shaheen said.

Shaheen blogged about the event and it gained widespread Internet exposure.

In the statement published Tuesday, the state-owned company said that “This type of behavior represents an isolated case, and is 100 percent against MEA’s policy. It does not fit within MEA’s culture, and furthermore goes contrary to our training procedures.”

However, many MEA customers commented that the airline should have also made a public apology and others demanded that the individual staff members be named.

Michelle Hatem commented that, “Racism is not to be tolerated and especially among MEA staff. As a Lebanese citizen I am proud of MEA and I would like to see the appropriate consequence taken to ensure that this does not happen again.”

Mazen Hajjar added, “How about some transparency and explaining who they were or at least what action was taken? This is a joke and reflective of a culture of no accountability. It is your duty to inform us as clients what action was taken. You are owned by the Lebanese people through the Central Bank and you need to come clean with us.”

BEIRUT: The Lebanese Army must investigate raids on the residence of
migrant workers Sunday during which dozens of men were beaten, Human
Rights Watch said.
“We want an investigation into the incident and we want those
responsible to be held to account,” Nadim Houry, the Human Rights Watch
deputy director for Middle East and North Africa, told The Daily Star
Tuesday.
The Lebanese Army entered at least two locations in Beirut’s Geitawi
district Sunday night occupied by migrant workers, where they proceeded
to restrain and beat the residents before leaving several hours later,
according to the workers, local eyewitnesses and HRW.
Men at one of the residences told The Daily Star that Army personnel
had arrived at around 9:30 p.m. and rounded up around 150 men, taking
them into the corridor of the building and beating each one with sticks,
as well as kicking, punching and slapping them.
“It was more like torture,” one man told The Daily Star.
“We were told not to speak. Everyone was beaten up. They said ‘anyone with a problem, don’t talk about it,’” he said.
Houry reported that he had spoken to one 43-year-old man who feared his
rib had been broken, but who could not afford to go to a doctor.
A local resident said she was told to “close their door and let [the
Army] do their job,” but that she could hear the sound of beatings from
her apartment.
Another local resident said he saw both Army personnel and plain
clothed officers at the location, and that he could see around 15
workers held with their hands tied behind their heads, and heard the
sound of slapping and insults directed toward the men, which went on for
around three hours.
The men, who are mostly Syrian but also Sudanese, were given no
explanation when the soldiers arrived and were not interrogated. They
were told not to speak, and not to look at the soldiers’ faces.
“While they were beating us they were saying we were doing unethical
stuff with women,” one man said, but no arrests were made, he added.
“If this was about a specific incident, they would go for [that person], they wouldn’t go for 100 of us,” another added.
Houry said the incident had no resemblance to an official investigation.
“All of them were released, none were taken. Clearly these were not national security threats,” he said.
“They stormed the door and started beating them. It was almost like a
hazing as opposed to an arrest or investigation,” Houry added.
An Army source denied the raids had occurred.
“We would have read about it in newspapers,” the source said. “The word
assault is out of the question. We never assault people.”
Houry, who also spoke to men at a separate location in Geitawi, said
similar incidents had occurred recently, one at a construction site near
Ashrafieh, and another in the Burj Hammoud district, but that they had
been “nothing like what happened on Sunday.”
“This is not the first time we have documented Lebanese security forces
or Army being violent, but this is the first time we have seen it on
this scale and in that way,” he said. “I am shocked and baffled by what
happened. From all I know it strikes me as a purely xenophobic attack
with no basis in law.”
But he added that “I don’t want to speculate [about the reason behind
the raid.] I want to let the Army explain this illegal behavior.”
The men The Daily Star spoke to said they were afraid the Army might
come back, and that several had left the residence out of fear. There
were reports that local media had been told by police not to film.
The majority of local residents declined to speak about the incident,
but those that did said they had had no problem with the workers. “We
have a good relationship with these guys. Sometimes we argue about small
stuff like water, but in general it’s good,” one resident said.
Houry added that the “the Army operates with a lot of impunity in Lebanon, but that must change.”
“We want this investigation to shed light on the incident,” he said,
“and we hope that the code of silence is not going to be applied.”

We believe we speak for all Lebanese people who are against racism, when we say that we are proud of what Abed Shaheen did this week. He witnessed a shameless act of racism by MEA staff in Beirut International Airport on October 6th, and instead of staying silent, he took it upon himself to launch a full-fledged campaign to expose the incident, to file complaints, to make sure it is properly investigated, and to pressure MEA to publicly apologize for the its staff’s behaviour and ensure that such an incident is not repeated.

He has been spending a considerable amount of his time and energy to take this case as far as it will go, and to try to put an end to this culture of silence and impunity.

Abed, your dedication and follow-through are an inspiration to us. If there were more people like you in Lebanon, we (the Anti-Racism Movement) would no longer need to exist.

Having investigated the issue that occurred on the 6th October, 2012 at
Rafik Hariri Intl. Airport - Beirut, which involved misbehavior by a
MEAG (subsidiary of MEA) passenger service agent, we would like to issue
the following statement.

This type of behavior represents an isolated case, and is 100% against MEA’s policy.

It does not fit within MEA’s culture, a

nd furthermore goes contrary to our training procedures.

Severe disciplinary action has been taken against the staff concerned.

Kindly rest assured that our goal is to attain the highest levels of customer satisfaction.

Oh look at them! How beautiful, stylish and open-minded they are! They are even dancing on bars, oh wow, so cool! They all go to universities and get at least a Masters Degree! They all are managers or directors. Oh my God how do they do it?! The Lebanese are so great, we so want to be like them!

Yeah, this is what you think people are saying about you, you silly superficial bastards, but the whole world is talking about how racist you are, about how stupid and arrogant you are.Who do you think you are? Do you think you were born from a golden imperial egg, or that you're superior to the Human race? Just give me a reason! I need a fucking reason!

Why do you think you're too special and can't sit next to an Ethiopian? Why do you think you can ban an Indian tourist from swimming in your pools? And now it's gone too far... you're banning Filipinos and Nepalese from talking in the airport lounge?! These same people raised your children, fed them, and tucked them into bed while you were tucking yourself in another bed with your lover.

MEA should present excuses to both the Philippines and Nepal embassies. MEA should be ashamed of hiring such people.

I don't know why they act that way? I really don't know, I have mixed feelings of anger and sadness, I just want to cry, I feel ashamed.

I have an Indian friend who wishes to come to Lebanon, and I've been postponing it for two years now, I don't know what to tell her... like" I am sorry if you come, you'll have to wait for me outside the bar, or you're going to be asked to wash the dishes"...

Wake up people!! I so want to slap you all, one after the other, so bad, maybe I can break your arrogance gene... Wake up people, we are all born equal, it's not the color of your skin, your education level or your work title that make you better than the rest! We all belong to the same race, and it's the Fucking Human race. WAKE THE FUCK UP!

It is now imperative that MEA produce internal policy or staff training which will prevent the recurrence of such an incident, Houry adds, but he believes the whole system at the airport needs to be broken down.

“If MEA staff members see General Security staff treating migrant domestic workers as second class citizens,” Houry says, this mentality will spread.

“They all have to know that there is no space for discrimination anymore.”

This article makes you want to cry. Burn your passport. Suffocate in your inability to give justice to those who were harmed by people whom your taxes are paying for end of each month.
Read it and judge.

The Lebanese army
entered an apartment rented by mostly Syrian workers in the Beirut
neighborhood of Jeitawi on Sunday night, beating them for hours. Four
people had to be treated in hospitals, while seven Sudanese men who were
in Lebanon illegally were detained.
As NOW reporters looked on from an adjacent balcony, Lebanese army
soldiers could be seen rounding up the Syrians and beating them with
sticks and belts. At one point the Syrians were sent into the courtyard
of the building. Afterward, they were forced to run up the staircase of
the building one after the other. There, four men in civilian clothes
waited for them, punching them in their faces and on their heads.
Once they were taken to the roof of the building, the Syrians were
forced to kneel down, hands behind their backs, before being beaten
again. Others were kicked in the abdomen while lying on the floor. The
sound of objects hitting bodies and subsequent screams and moans could
be heard across the street. The operation lasted for about four hours.
The soldiers, apparently belonging to the army’s Special Forces, yelled at people in surrounding buildings not to watch.
When NOW approached the building this morning, two Syrians who were
present last night agreed to speak to reporters at a nearby park. There,
nervously glancing over their shoulders, they said that “There is still
an intelligence officer in the building.”
One of the Syrians interviewed had a plate-sized bruise on his back.
“We were sitting in our rooms, when they stormed in and started hitting
us,” he told NOW. “They didn’t say why, they just yelled ‘Watan! Watan!’
[State! State!].”
“We are here legally,” he added, producing his immigration card with a
visa valid until 2013. “And most of us have jobs. I work in a
supermarket every day.”
According to the two Syrians, seven Sudanese men who were in the
apartment at the time of the raid were arrested, as they had no valid
visas.
The soldiers warned the men not to talk to the press. According to
the two Syrian men interviewed, shortly after the operation a man
approached the house, saying that he was a journalist with Voice of
Lebanon radio station and began asking questions. Minutes later, the
intelligence officer told the Syrian man, “Didn’t we tell you not to
talk to the media?”
The reasons behind the operation remain unclear. A military spokesmen contacted by NOW declined to comment.
A man who lives in the area complained to NOW this morning that the
Syrians “Come from rural areas and don’t know how to behave themselves,”
and that they were “harassing girls and women.” Locals have filed
similar complaints with police in the past.
Last Monday, October 1, a similar incident happened close to Sassine
Square. Several army vehicles and a car with tinted windows blocked off
the street surrounding a construction site, people living in the area
reported.
“There are Syrians working and sleeping in the building,” an onlooker
who preferred to remain anonymous said. “We could hear wailing from
inside the construction site. At one point they walked a man out of the
building, hands tied behind his back, as a soldier kicked him in the
legs. A second one was slapped while being walked to the car with tinted
windows.”
Nadim Houry, deputy director of Human Rights Watch for the Middle
East and North Africa, arrived at the scene of the latest incident
around midnight Sunday. “There is a disturbing pattern of Lebanese army
forces violently going against migrants,” he told NOW, noting another
incident last month in Bourj Hammoud.
“It’s troubling to see elite forces being deployed in residential
areas in such a secretive manner,” Houry added. “Some of the Syrians had
been living here for years, and there were obviously no arrest
warrants.”
The two Syrian men from the building said they would go into hiding after their conversations with NOW, fearing repercussions.

Monday, October 8, 2012

We
are aware of the purported incident that took place on the 6th October
2012 at Beirut International Airport, and appreciate your patience while
a full investigation by MEA is underway. Please rest assured that MEAs
policy is not to tolerate discriminatory or racist behavior in any form
from our employees, and that appropriate measures will be taken once the
facts of the incident are brought to light.

So, yesterday, another post, originally on twitter, went viral all over the local online world, here, with more than 600 shares in the first 24 hours- a post about a horrendous case of discrimination and racism by MEA staff.

You can read all about the story here and a few of the angry, rightfully very angry, comments.

Many people are taking personal initiatives to hold MEA accountable to what they did, or what they did not do really (by accepting to keep such unprofessional, disrespectful staff on board).

We will keep you posted on what we will do. If you would like to join efforts and act on this one, send us an email to antiracismlb@gmail.com

Sunday like any other day for this migrant domestic workerI took these pictures today, on a Sunday, while heading back home from a family gathering. While all Lebanese (and virtually all residents in Lebanon) were enjoying a day off, this domestic worker was just doing her work. Despite 3 years of activism and advocacy for essential labor rights for migrant domestic workers, the "system" has not changed much. (Wissam)

Join us on Sunday October 7th for the first ever Migrant Communities' Handicrafts Market! There will be beautiful handmade crafts, paintings, coffee, food and other great items on sale! Ten Asian and African communities will have stands full of goodies for you to choose from!

5 to 9 PM.

Get your friends and loved ones and come have a delicious dinner. Too many options to chose from.